Terrestrial gastropods, such as snails and slugs, consume foliage and are a major cause of plant damage both in agriculture and in home gardens. Conventional techniques for controlling snails or the like include the use of toxic snail baits and, as an alternative, hand picking of the pests from foliage.
Snail baits remain effective for only a limited period of time particularly if rains occur. Thus frequently repeated applications of such baits are usually needed in order to protect plants in a given area. Use of toxic snail baits may be inadvisable in areas where small children or pet animals are present and many persons have a general aversion to the deliberate spreading of toxic substances into the environment.
Hand picking of snails or slugs from foliage must be accompanied by destruction of the pests. This is much more effective when it is done at night as such pests are nocturnal foragers and are generally concealed on the undersides of foliage during daylight. The process is in general tedious and time consuming and is distinctly unpleasant to many persons.
Various forms of electrical barrier have hertofore been developed for the purpose of repelling insects and animals from an area that is to be protected or, in the case of insects in particular, for the purpose of extermination. These prior systems are not particularly adaptable to the control of snails and slugs. Such systems require an external source of electrical power such as a battery or a connection to utility power lines and continuously consume electrical energy. Such systems also tend to be complex, costly and require a significant amount of maintenance effort.
It would be advantageous if a simple, economical and easily installed barrier were available which could be placed around the perimeter of areas to be protected from snails, slugs or the like and which did not involve the distribution or poison baits, hand picking or require connection to an electrical power supply.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above.